Specific Karate CAN-DO! Therapeutic Benefits

Sensei Kohn works in collaboration with medical and therapy professionals to optimize the benefits for the child. The Karate CAN-DO! program is designed to facilitate benefits in all areas of a child’s life to assist them in daily living, peer relationships, academics and physical activities. The goal of the program is to help children develop socially and physically so they can ultimately participate in mainstream classes.

Sensei Kohn has over thirty years of experience working with and training children with challenges such as:

• Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorder
• Fragile X Syndrome
• Down Syndrome
• Physical Challenges
• Behavioral/Social Disorders
• Tourette’s Syndrome
• ADD/ADHD
• Cerebral Palsy
• Learning Disabilities
• Cognitive Delays Dyspraxia or Developmental Coordination Disorder
• Sensory Integration Disorder/Modulation Disorders

The Karate CAN-DO! program benefits Children with Modulation Disorders (who are over or under reactive to the environment)

If a child presents sensory over-responsive, he may demonstrate high arousal, lack of focus, impulsivity, aggression, sensory defensiveness, and behavioral problems. The Karate CAN-DO! Program helps overcome these problems by providing input which decreases state of defensiveness, works toward state of optimal arousal by adding:

• Vestibular and proprioceptive input
• Resistive upper body activities
• Resistive exercises
• Slow rhythmical patterns/movement

If a child presents Sensory Under-responsive, he may demonstrate decreased arousal level, have an inattentive/passive nature, be disinterested/daydream frequently, have a flat affect, crave movement experiences and seek out proprioceptive opportunities. The Karate CAN-DO! Program can assist children with these issues through:

• Multi-sensory experience, Vestibular and proprioceptive input,
• Weight bearing activities,
• Bilateral activities
• Movement activities

Kids that are Sensory Seeking, have heightened arousal, poor modulated attention, excitability, (or are easily excited), are risk takers and impulsive, have a need for constant stimulation and crave attention.

For these children, Karate CAN-DO! provides the sensory input they need but in a meaningful experience, can help to teach calming and self-regulation strategies to child, provides activities with modulating input of increased frequency to meet sensory needs, and provides the movement they need and the heavy work.

For all modulation disorders, Karate CAN-DO! can help to facilitate:

• Flexibility
• Attention skills and focusing
• Less resistance to new and different activities and fewer avoidance behaviors
• Less difficulty with transitions
• Organization of behavior
• Less perseveration
• Better ability to generalize new skills to different environments
• Increase inner drive and/or motivation

Karate helps children who are Dyspraxic, (difficulty planning, sequencing and completing fine and/or gross motor tasks especially unfamiliar actions. These children may have difficulty with sequential tasks, have fear of trying new things, demonstrate play that is aggressive and or destructive, tantrum frequently, have difficulty with transitions, get easily frustrated, can be overly controlling of their activities, have difficulty developing peer relationships.

Intervention strategies that these children benefit from include:

• Activities being broken down into simple steps
• A variety of activities
• The need to verbalize what they are doing to enhance ideation, and bilateral activities—all of which are implemented through karate training

Karate Can-DO! helps children with Postural Disorders

These children have balance issues, their hand dominance may not be established, have poor or low muscle tone, poor trunk rotation, difficulty with bilateral movement patterns, lack strength and endurance, have difficulty maintaining stable posture and difficulty crossing midline. Karate helps them because they benefit from activities that involve movement against gravity and activities that require sustained flexion. They respond to movement activities that are child-propelled, rather than passive movement, and activities that require balance.

The program benefits children with Communication or Speech and Language Difficulties

The development of speech and language is dependent upon the central nervous system's organization at all levels. It is not just a cognitive function. The quality and development of a child’s speech and language proficiency is dependent on the child’s attention, focus, sensory processing, motor planning, organization skills, body tone and core strength, etc.

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